A new approach to DPE: Damage/Cycle

Hey there trainers!

tl;dr? Here's a Summary:

Here is a spreadsheet of the charge moves you can play with that uses an improved metric to rank charge moves. I've also included DPS*DPE and three new metrics (Damage/cycle with a cycle of 10s, 15s, and 20s) to show how they all stack up. Each column is formatted to list good moves in green and bad moves in red. The middle metric (with Frenzy Plant topping the charts at 344) is the metric I'd like to suggest using. Titled simply, it's the Damage/Cycle (10s):

Improvements by using this new metric:

You'll notice that moves like Precipice Blades and Origin Pulse do not outrank Frenzy Plant and Doom Desire. What's neat is seeing how moves like Dragon Claw, Draco Meteor, and Outrage stack up. With this new metric, Dragon Claw is still the worst of the three. But Draco Meteor actually out-ranks Outrage because you get to use more Quick Attacks during a cycle, generating some more damage and energy to make up for the loss in raw power.

But this still needs to be applied to the real world. Outrage has a significant advantage in being able to launch a powerful charge move for -50 energy. That means for 1.5 charge bars worth of energy, Outrage is out-damaging Draco Meteor. But for 2 charge bars worth of energy, Draco Meteor beats Outrage by ~20 points of damage. So to me, the moves are more equal than you'd think.

For the full analysis...

How I generated this spreadsheet:

Top tips after getting started: updated!

Hey trainers,

The top tips page has been updated with more modern advice. If you know a community or someone who might benefit from the advice there, please share it!

http://letspokego.blogspot.ch/p/tips-for-getting-started.html

Got any top tips I missed? I'd love to hear them in the comments below!

Cheers,
Crawdaunt out

An in-depth look at Gym Decay

Hey there Trainers!

The other day I was wondering about gym decay rate, and was surprised to find that no one had figured out the exact formula yet. Granted, gym decay is somewhat unimportant in the current metagame, as expending any mental effort on defending is a waste of time. But despite numerous posts like these, there still wasn't a finite Gym decay rate algorithm out there.

Since I was last writing, the game has changed significantly, and so have I. For one thing, I live on the other side of the world, and with the change to gym mechanics, my gym motivation decayed significantly as well. But my current location gives me a great group of local gyms that are either high-turnover or hold for up to 4 days undisturbed. So I decided I would test Pokemon over a wide range of CP to determine exactly how gym decay changes with CP.

You can find this calculator, my 250-1299 calculator, and my 2321+ calculator on the Let's GO Decay Rate Calculator page, but I've pasted in the 1300-2321CP calculator here for folks to see.


Let's be honest, this is like... the only thing you care about in this article. Find the 2322+ calculator on the Let's GO Decay Rate calculator page here! I'll be updating the calculator page with calculators for below 1300 CP as well when more data becomes available. Unfortunately I suck at code and so I haven't yet figured out how to merge all three calculators into one.

Disclaimer: In testing this calculator against my recorded data, there was no difference in predicted CP/h greater than 0.30, and no difference in predicted %CP/h greater than 0.01% within the bounds of 1300-2321 CP.

But to see how I've come up with this calculator, read on! Note that the calculator only applies between 1300 and 2321 at the moment. Above ~2321, decay rate is 10% of the Initial CP, and so you can just use the formula (Initial CP)*(0.1) to find your CP/h decay rate, and any %CP/h or "Time until" numbers are the same as CP = 2321.

Summary of findings

DRATINI AHOY!: Pokemon GO! Water-Pokemon Event

Dratini everywhere!

Greetings trainers,

Just an update letting folks know about Pokemon GO's recent Water-Pokemon event in celebration of the Global Water Festival. It seems like they've coded this event to alter the spawn data, making the majority of spawns equivalent to Water-biome spawns. What this means is that Pokemon that spawn in water biomes are now extremely common for the next week! The event runs from March 22nd to March 29th. Here is a list of water Pokemon trainers will want to get their hands on while the going is good:

Gyarados also got a model update,
not sure how I feel about the
colour scheme...

Strong battlers

• Dratini
• Magikarp
• Lapras
• Slowpoke
• Omanyte
• Totodile
• Shellder? (not actually sure this is water-biome associated, despite being a clam)

That's right! Dratini is Water-biome associated, and given that a friend reported catching 4 Dratini in 10 minutes (and I've already seen two today at work), it seems like this is confirmed. This is the week to stock up on Dratini candies and maybe get yourself a few good Dratini to evolve later! I don't think this will affect Dragonair or Dragonite spawns, as those fall into the "ultra rare" spawn category and aren't strictly biome-associated. The same goes for Vaporeon.

Rare finds (some redundancy)

Oh Blastoise... it's so sad how
bad you are now...

• Squirtle
• Totodile
• Lapras
• Mantine
• Omanyte
• Kabuto

If you still don't have a Mantine, now's your chance to get a great one! Not to mention plenty of Totodile candies. And as a personal recommendation: Kingdra is a really good prestige Pokemon, as it doubly resists fire and gets access to Hydro Pump. So if you want to stock up on Horsea candy, now is a good time.

Cheers,
Let's GO!

DPE vs. DPS and New Moves

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• An example of how DPE is useful
• Table of charge moves sorted by DPE
• Table of charge moves sorted by DPE/Cooldown
• Conclusion

Greetings Trainers!

Today's article is going to give a fresh perspective to the metagame. Trainers have previously been focused on moves based around things like damage-per-second (DPS). This made a lot of sense for both quick moves and charge moves, and DPS alone generally reflected a move's utility. Defending moves vs. attacking moves of course had unique DPS calculations, and move cool downs played an important role in how good a move was.

But in the new metagame, I think I'm prepared to say that DPS is not the most important factor in determining a move's utility. Quick moves especially have been largely balanced, and are more similar to each other than before; of course there are better and worse quick moves, but some of the higher-DPS quick moves have longer cool downs, while the slightly lower DPS quick moves allow you to dodge. Pick your poison, but unless you're dodging a lot (which some people do) they aren't all thaaaat different at the end of the day. Not to mention the Energy-per-second (EPS) rate of some of the quick moves is also more important now, and the weakest DPS moves tend to have higher EPS.

But today I'll go over a new concept that should help players understand how the new charge moves work in the current metagame. Damage-per-energy (DPE) is the ratio of base damage to energy consumed. So if you have a high DPE, that means you do lots of damage per charge bar.

DPE is your damage-per-energy consumed. 

If a move does 100 damage, and takes a full charge bar (100% energy = 1.0), then its DPE is: 100/1.0 = 100. 

If a move does 100 damage and takes half a charge bar (1/2 = 0.5), then its DPE is: 100/0.5 = 200. 

The higher the DPE, the more damage per energy consumed.

Let's GO Gym Defender's Tier List - Gen 2

Greetings Trainers!

There's a new mon in town

This article is going to be updated as lower rungs of the tier list solidify, but I think that some Pokemon have made a very definite name for themselves in gyms since the release of Gen 2, and so today I'll be releasing this tier list with the intention of sorting the lower-tiered Pokemon later. For now, I'll just be including ideal movesets, and will work on write-ups for each Pokemon shortly. This article will be updating daily to explain some of the choices. Overall, a greater diversity of Pokemon types are now viable defenders, which is what you'd have hoped given 80 new Pokemon.

For instance, Gyarados massively improved as a defender in the latest update, but only because of new access to Dragon Tail / Crunch or Outrage. All old Gyarados are still middling, but new Gyarados with Dragon Tail make for much better defenders.

Table of Contents

*List last updated March 8th 2017

• Let's GO: Gym Defender's Tier List
• Summary Tier List
• Fast facts you should know
• Honourable Mentions
• Good, but not-yet-tiered

Summary Tier List

Nanab and Pinap, berry cool additions

Greetings trainers!

The release of generation 2 brought with it two new berries: the Pinap berry and Nanab berry. These two have unique effects that should make the catching game a lot more enjoyable. Pinap berries increase the candies you receive upon catches, while Nanab berries make Pokemon slow down and dodge less. These are both useful effects, but exactly how should trainers make the most of these two new effects? For instance, say a Snorlax shows up. Which berry do you use? Razz, to increase the catch chance? Or Pinap, to increase the candy yield? Here are some thoughts, feel free to post yours in the comments!

Pinap Berry (double candy received upon catching)

Gen 2 is live! -This post is updating with new info constantly

Greetings Trainers!

Folks weren't expecting the release of Generation 2 until some time later this week, but Niantic surprised us by releasing Generation 2 Pokemon this afternoon at approx. 3pm PST! If you hadn't heard, the Valentine's Day 6-hour Lure event was also extended until Saturday, so you have time to use your Lures to try and lure up some Gen 2 Pokemon! New berries have also been released, which includes Nanab berries, which make a Pokemon less likely to run, and Pinap berries, which grant the trainer double candies upon capture.


Be on the lookout for prevolutions of new powerful Pokemon like Larvitar, Phanpy, Teddiursa, and Mareep! Also be on the lookout for strong Pokemon like Heracross. And if you have candies available, you can now evolve new Pokemon like Blissey, Scizor, Porygon2, and many more! Maybe pop a Lucky Egg before you do and go on an evolving spree while reaping the benefits of all these new Pokedex entries!


UPDATE 3:30pm PST: Apparently moves have also been re-balanced. More on this as we learn the details, but moves like Psychic, Flamethrower, Dazzling Gleam etc... have been given new damage outputs. For now, catch everything you can and try not to transfer too much!


e.g. Confusion now has 20 base damage, and Psychic is a 100-energy 100 base damage move.




How to make the most of the Valentine's Day event

Greetings Trainers!

Pokemon GO's latest event has folks catching pink Pokemon, with a touch of sweetness; yes, it's double-candy season again! This applies to catches, hatches, and buddy candies, making now the prime time to stock up. Lure Modules also last for 6 whole hours while the event is going, to paint the town pink. Today's article will go over some basic tips to let you know how to best take advantage of this event, regardless of your goals. Maximize your EXP, get the most return on your coins, and of course, catch the most relevant seasonal Pokemon available! This includes considerations for the upcoming 2nd generation of Pokemon, which will be releasing some time in the not-so-distant future!

Table of Contents

• Event Details
• Pokemon you should stock up on right now
• Getting the most out of double candy
• Spending coins wisely
• Conclusion

A look at Gamepress' Gym Defender Tier List

Greetings trainers!

We're still waiting on Gen 2, and the gym metagame has settled since the major CP update, so I thought I'd give the current gym metagame a look-over while we wait.

When the CP update came out, the first place I'd recommend anyone look would be Gamepress' tiering system. The guys there do a great job of analyzing things thoroughly, and I always learn a lot about directions I can explore regarding effective attackers and defenders. I don't always 100% agree with their placings, but I mostly agree, and they justify themselves very well.

Their current gym defender tier list looks like this:
(as a reminder, here's our post-update Defenders Tier List)

Link here: https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/gym-defenders-tier-list

How to re-introduce Poke-stop submissions

Greetings trainers,

Table of Contents

1. Pre-amble/explanation
2. Proposal
3. Would this really be all that helpful?
4. Conclusion

1. Pre-amble 

I've been travelling about lately and I've gotten a good bit of perspective regarding the state of Poke-stop diversity in different kinds of communities. I've been in the boonies, I've been in the big city, and I've been in-between. Back when Niantic originally populated Poke-stop submissions (i.e. portals in "Ingress"), they used geo-tagged photos of interesting works of art, culture, and then public buildings like post offices or unique landmarks. This gave them a big base of Poke-stops to work from, and previously Niantic had portal/Poke-stop submission open for Ingress and Pokemon GO. The company shut down portal submissions back in September 2015, and never had the option to submit new Poke-stops in Pokemon GO.

I imagine Niantic has a massive backlog of data about GPS co-ordinates of submitted portals/Poke-stops, and they have more than enough data to filter through already; if they re-opened submissions, I imagine most of the data they would receive would be requests for Poke-stops that are already in their database. Thus, it would be a bit redundant to re-open submissions, and would just increase the strain on human resources figuring out how to best process these requests.

Niantic has said that they wanted to work on a new and more efficient way to process portal submission requests. Given my recent travels, I think the most important thing Niantic could do to re-open submissions would be to allow users to annotate areas in the world that are incredibly sparsely populated by Poke-stops/Gyms. Below is my thought process for how to best make this happen, which hopefully isn't too redundant with what Niantic already has to consider.

2. Proposal

Gym Prestige System Fixed!

Rejoice!

Greeting trainers!

Quick update post. Gym Prestige has been fixed! You still take down enemy gyms by 1000 prestige per Pokemon defeated, +1000 for defeating the whole gym. However, you can now earn up to 1000 prestige for defeating a friendly Pokemon again!

Here's a reminder on how to battle gyms most effectively!

• If the Pokemon with the highest CP in your party has a higher CP than the Defending Pokemon, you will earn 255 prestige minus a multiplier down to a minimum of 100 prestige.
• If the Pokemon with the highest CP in your party has a lower CP than the Defending Pokemon, you will earn 500 prestige plus a multiplier up to a maximum of 1000 prestige.

• The new battle mechanics will level down any Defending Pokemon to match your level (+2). So the Combat Power of the later Pokemon may be reduced from the overview.
• To get the most out of each battle, you should try to beat every Defending Pokemon with an team that's about half their Combat Power.

If you want a full-length article, feel free to check out the Let's GO guide to using the new gym battle system!

And be sure to check out our new Gym Defender's Tier List to know what Pokemon are top defenders in the new metagame!

Cheers,

Let's GO!

Let's GO's Updated Gym Defender Tier List

Vaporeons. Vaporeons everywhere!

Greetings Trainers!

The new CP update has really thrown a wrench in the gears of "Let's GO." I was all ready for Generation 2 to come out, and then out of nowhere this CP update changed everything I knew about the gym metagame. I wasn't going to write anything about this new metagame, but I decided I could do a lazy-formatted article to at least give my thoughts about the new gym defender tiers.

These rankings do not only factor in the performance of the defender, but they also take into account a Pokemon's maximum CP. This is the new age of Pokemon GO, where gyms go down much faster. The CP update also promoted a bunch of new high CP Pokemon that players will slot into gyms to avoid being the first to drop out (e.g. Rhydon, Gyarados). Due to the new gym Prestige mechanics, combined with the numerous high-CP Pokemon in the game, having high CP is that much more important for a Gym Defender. Why? Well:

In order for a gym defender to make a difference in a gym, it actually has to stay in the gym long enough to be battled a few times. A Pokemon like Chansey is beastly with its new buff, and I don't have a max-level Chansey to test against to see if it's even possible to beat it before timing out using most available attackers; I suspect it is possible. If it is possible to beat Chansey, then it's not a very good defender. The reason being that players will only ever have to battle Chansey once in order to knock it out of the gym, as it's virtually guaranteed to be at the front. This same principle can be applied to other strong defenders like Wigglytuff, that will simply get dropped from a gym too quickly to be relevant anymore. If you filled a gym with Chanseys, or Wigglytuffs, that's another story. But as general defenders... they're just not up to snuff anymore.

With that said, here's a rough prospective Tier list with some explanations/speculation. Generation 2 will totally revamp this, so I won't be putting tons of work into making this article look pretty. The new Base Stats come from a formula derived by Peter Hatch, commenter on Gamepress. As such, they are calculated approximations, and may not reflect true stats. I've always rounded down, as that's how Pokemon tends to do things. So even if a stat calcs to 200.99, I'd still say the base stat is 200. I think this is how Niantic and Pokemon treat things...

Tier Summary

For recommended movesets, see the original Gym Defender Tier List article!

S Tier

• Snorlax
• Lapras

Tier 1

• Dragonite
• Exeggutor
• Vaporeon

Tier 2

• Omastar
• Poliwrath
• Slowbro
• Venusaur
• Kangaskhan

Tier 3

• Rhydon
• Gyarados
• Muk

Tier 4

• Golem
• Tentacruel
• Clefable
• Vileplume
• Cloyster
• Alakazam
• Tauros

Tier 5

• Arcanine
• Machamp
• Pinsir

Likely "Best" Pokemon from Generation 2

Meet Tyranitar, the new Dragonite. It's a Rock/Dark type,
and effectively the Godzilla of Pokemon - instantly cool.

Greetings trainers!

Generation 2 sprites have been found in datamines of the game, which means it's no longer ridiculous to speculate on Generation 2 Pokemon. There are also rumoured leaks about corporate sponsorships with Starbucks and others, but these are just rumours for now. Hilariously (not), I had already written up most of this article and was ready to put the finishing touches on it when the new CP update hit. This new CP update has now been worked out to some extent (thanks to Peter Hatch and the folks at Gamepress), though it's still a tiny bit off for some Pokemon's true Max CP.

With that said, the metagame still hasn't settled since the update, and most intriguing to me is that Pokemon with high CP stats are no longer necessarily decent gym defenders.

Previously, Max CP was very strongly correlated with gym performance. But now, Pokemon with terrible Stamina can have very high CP (e.g. Alakazam, Kingler, Gengar), but these Pokemon do not make good gym defenders; a reminder that gym defenders receive a 2x boost to HP, making Stamina the most important stat for gym defenders. Once Gen 2 is released and we know movesets, I'll look into updating the Gym Defender's Tier List.

Summary (TL;DR): 

An interesting side effect that Gen 2 will likely have is making it relevant to have a good attacking Machamp. Snorlax having Zen Headbutt really put a damper in Machamp's metagame relevance, but with four Pokemon coming up that are all Fighting-weak, Machamp my finally gets it chance to shine. Most importantly, one of these four is the new Dragonite-equivalent, Tyranitar. Tyranitar is doubly weak to Fighting (ho yeah), and Machamp will resist whatever attacks TTar throws out, be they Rock or Dark (ho baby).

So while you'll want to save up your candies for whatever Gen 2 mons you're excited for, it might be a good idea to try and get yourself a good attacking Machamp in the meantime! Hitmonlee also received a major buff, and should be capable of tackling Tyranitar. Rock/Ground types like Rhydon and Golem should also be highly relevant to tackling the upcoming Rock and Normal types, as they resist their Rock and Normal STAB moves and can hit back with high-damage Ground moves.

Introduction to the actual meat of the article:

The Let's (Pokemon) GO! Gym Building Guide

Go away Drowzee, no one likes you

Greetings trainers,

With the latest update (released on Nov. 7th 2016), the gym Prestige system has been totally overhauled. It's now 4x harder to hold a gym than prior to the update. Why? It's 2x tougher to level a gym up, and 2x easier to take one down. Details below:

The maximum Prestige earned off a defending Pokemon in a friendly gym is now 500 (down from the previous 1000), and the prestige earned for knocking out a defending Pokemon in an enemy gym is now 1000 (up from 500). The bonus for clearing an enemy gym has been reduced to 1000 (from 1500).

What effect will this have on the metagame? That remains to be determined, but already I've been seeing a lot of former Level 10 strongholds fall. Quite interestingly, not all of them were actually taken down fully, but a number of them have had the first few Pokemon cleared out and were then left alone. These gyms are likely going to get cleared once the first strong player on a gym-run passes by, but in the meantime they're holding.

Overall, I think this change is going to be fantastic for the health of the game, though the most dedicated players will have a harder time collecting 100 coins every day. The question on everyone's mind is now: in this new age of hyper offence, how does someone build a level 10 gym anymore? First, a quick note:

Summary of Gym-prestige mechanics changes

• Against friendly gyms, beating a defender with a lower-CP Pokemon now earns you 250 prestige plus a multiplier. Beating a defender with a higher-CP Pokemon now earns you 125 prestige minus a multiplier.
• Against opposing gyms, beating a defender now reduces gym prestige by 1000, and clearing the whole gym reduces gym prestige by an additional 1000.

With that said, let's get talking about how to build these level 10 gyms. By the way, if you haven't seen our Gym Defender's Tier List yet, be sure to give it a look-over when you can. In the meantime, here is a summary of some of the strongest defenders out there:

Featured Pokemon: Wigglytuff

Question: without looking, does
Wigglytuff have a tail?

Greetings trainers!

Today we'll be talking about, perhaps, the most underestimated Pokemon in Pokemon GO. Wigglytuff has been called a "mini-Snorlax," and its massive HP and Fairy/Normal-typing really do make it feel a bit like facing a Snorlax. Wigglytuff's Feint Attack is comparable to Snorlax's Zen Headbutt, and far superior to Snorlax's Lick. On offence, Wigglytuff is a fantastic mon to use for gym-levelling, thanks to its extremely low CP for its relative performance. All-in-all, Wigglytuff is a great Pokemon with niche uses as both an attacker and very capable defender.

Recommended movesets

How to use the new Gym Battle system

Greetings trainers!

Update (Dec. 4th 2016): Gym prestige has been re-worked. Again. But for the better! The Prestige earned for battles has been restored (max per Pokemon is 1000 again), and the prestige earned for knocking down enemy gyms is 1000 per Pokemon, plus 1000 for defeating the whole gym.

Niantic unveiled a new Gym-battling update that totally re-worked the friendly Gym battles. For better or worse, this new system is here to stay. My opinion on the system is mixed, but more on that below. For now, how can you take advantage of the new system to put yourself in friendly gyms!?

You've got questions?
We've got answers

Table of Contents

• How to earn prestige
• How to maximize prestige per battle
• Some useful Pokemon for prestige-earning
• Thoughts on the new gym battle system
• Ramblings

How to earn prestige

So you've found yourself a friendly Gym, but it's taking ages to level up and you only get ~200 prestige per Pokemon anyways. Fear not! Gym battles have some basic mechanics you can take advantage of. Some things to keep in mind:

• If the Pokemon with the highest CP in your party has a higher CP than the Defending Pokemon, you will earn 255 prestige minus a multiplier down to a minimum of 100 prestige.
• If the Pokemon with the highest CP in your party has a lower CP than the Defending Pokemon, you will earn 500 prestige plus a multiplier up to a maximum of 1000 prestige.

• The new battle mechanics will level down any Defending Pokemon to match your level (+2). So the Combat Power of the later Pokemon may be reduced from the overview.
• To get the most out of each battle, you should try to beat every Defending Pokemon with an team that's about half their Combat Power.

If you're curious how the Gym combat mechanics, there's a great in-depth guide written up on gamepress.

How to maximize prestige per battle

Featured Pokemon: Venusaur and Victreebel

I like how Venusaur's name implies
a Venus fly trap, but Victreebel is the
pitcher plant (aka fly trapper).

Greetings trainers!

Today we'll be looking at the best two Grass/Poison types in the game. With the swag of a starter, Venusaur is the envy of many trainers, and because of Pokemon GO mechanics, it's probably the best of the three starters for Gym defence. Victreebel is on the opposite end of the spectrum, boasting a massive attack stat and middling Defence and Stamina; that said, it's also a good defender! However, what unites these two is their typing and movesets. Venusaur and Victreebel are not only the same Grass/Poison types, but they also have very similar ideal movesets! What are their differences? Find out below:

Recommended movesets

Featured Pokemon: Hypno

I take solace in the fact that Hypnos have no mouths,
cannot eat, and they only live about a week. At
least... mine only live that long... Ah.... nature.

Greetings trainers!

Some areas are blessed (more like cursed) with a crapton of Drowzee. This gives players access to Hypno from very early on. What Hypno is really good for is being a capable battler for its relative CP. A low-CP Hypno can trade neutrally with a lot of Pokemon well, which means players can start attacking gyms with their Hypno early. This unfortunately also means that new players can put weak Hypno in their friendly gyms, which does very little to protect the gym, but a lot to make it difficult to level up. So, what is Hypno good for? Why is it bad? Why is it good?

Recommended movesets

Featured Pokemon: Exeggutor

My Exeggutor is named "Frondly Face."

Greetings trainers!

Eggs? Coconuts? Not sure... But if you're looking for a frondly face, look no further. What you can be sure of is that Exeggutor is one of the best Pokemon currently in the game, and one of the best defenders out there. One of the main reasons for this is because of Vaporeon's overwhelming popularity, but the other is because Exeggutor is a Psychic type. Psychic types are really good in the Generation 1 metagame. Almost nothing takes Psychic moves well except for other Psychic Pokemon. So, what else does Exeggutor have going for it? Well...

Recommended movesets